, yelping torrents that I
was to lead over them, or through them or around them, and the old man
hadn't given me a suggestion that I could hang a guess on. The more I
thought, the more scared I got. I put up a stiff front, or tried to
before my men, but all the time I imagined them laughing at me, or
cursing me for making them wade that strip of ice water, or break their
shins dragging a chain over the slippery rocks. I was thankful when the
sun went down, but that didn't last long. Even in my sleep I saw those
mountains jiggering and grinning. They moved into places that I had
picked out for my line, and away from them when I had abandoned it. I
stood it for a week, then I poured out my woes in a long letter to my
chief and sent it out by a special messenger."

Ralph again paused. The old man waited for a moment.

"Well?" he asked.

"In a week my answer came. Just five sentences. 'You are going at your
work the wrong way. You are asking it questions. By and by your work
will ask you questions. Then you're getting on. Keep at it.'"

"And the line?" persisted Uncle Sid.

"Oh, the line? I made the profile and sent it in. My old man came up and
looked it over. He was in a hurry as usual. 'You have laid out the line;
now go ahead and build it', then he was off."

"You built it?"

"Yes, after a fashion. It helped to wash the gold out of the Yuba river
sand till the anti-debris laws headed it off. Then I came down here."

"How did you happen to hit in with Elijah Berl?"

"He was the only man in Southern California who was doing anything that
was worth while."

"Yes, it is worth while." Uncle Sid brought down his open hand upon his
knee with a resounding slap. Then he laid his hand on Ralph's with
emphasizing beats, looking earnestly into his face. "Don't you let go,
either, or it won't be worth shucks."

Ralph returned the Captain's earnest look.

"I'll hang on," he answered briefly.

"That's right. You stick to it. You an' Helen Lonsdale are goin' to make
this thing go, if it's a goin'."

"I think I appreciate what Helen is doing as well as what Elijah has
done; she's the life of the whole business."

Uncle Sid appeared to take up Ralph's words. Then he changed his mind,
speaking reminiscently.

"I've known 'Lige Berl ever since he was so high an' before." Uncle Sid
measured Elijah's former height with his hand. "He's a queer mixture. He
was always a mixture of ideas an' prayer meetin's an' the flesh pots